I'm surprised I didn't find this posted here, or any place on the Internet. Pete Seeger has recorded it, and there are a couple of compilations that have a recording of Jim Garland singing it.

The Death of Harry Simms (by Jim Garland, as sung by Aunt Molly Jackson)

Come and listen to my story, Come and listen to my song; I will tell you of a hero That is now dead and gone. I will tell you of a young boy, Whose age was nineteen; He was the bravest union man That I have ever seen.

Harry Simms was a pal of mine, We labored side by side, Expecting to be shot on sight, Or taken for a ride, By the dirty coal operator gun thugs Who roam from town to town, A-shooting down the union men Where'er they may be found.

Harry Simms and I were parted At five o'clock that day. "Be careful, my dear comrade," To Harry I did say. "I must do my duty," Was his reply to me. "If I get killed by gun thugs, Don't grieve after me."

Harry Simms was a-walkin' up the track This bright sunshiny day; He was a youth of courage, His step was light and gay. We did not know the gun thugs Were hiding on the way, To kill our dear young comrade This bright sunshiny day.

Harry Simms was killed on Brush Creek In nineteen thirty-two; He organized the miners Into the N.M.U. He gave his life in struggle, That was all that he could do, He died for the Union, Also for me and you.

Fred asked this question on the ballad list and received this answer there:

DEATH OF HARRY SIMMS (Jim Garland)

Comrades listen to my story, Comrades listen to my song. I will tell you of a hero that now is dead and gone. I will tell you of a young boy, Whose age was just nineteen He was the strongest union man That I have ever seen.

Harry Simms was walking up the track This bright sunshiny day, He was a youth of courage, His step was light and gay. We did not know the gun thugs Were hiding on the way, To kill our dear young Comrade This bright sunshiny day.

Harry Simms was a pal of mine, We labored side by side, If expecting to be shot on sight, Or taken for a ride By the dirty capitalist gun thugs That roam from town to town To shoot and kill our Comrades, Wherever they may be found.

Harry Simms and I were parted At five o'clock that day, Be careful, My dear Comrade, To Harry I did say, I must do my duty Was his reply to me, If I get killed by gun thugs, Don't grieve after me.

THE STORY BEHIND THIS AMERICAN BALLAD By Mary Elizabeth Barnacle Professor of Folklore at NYU and the Univ. of Tennessee

The strike in the soft coal camps in Bell County, Kentucky first started in 1931, mostly conducted by the rank and file of the UMWA--the officials giving no leadership; on the contrary, they helped to break the strike by betraying the miners. But the strike continued, taking on a new lease of life in January, 1932, under the guidance of the National Miners' Union.

Harry Simms, a young organizer from Springfield, Massachusetts, nineteen years old, as tender-hearted as he was strong-minded, was at this time organizing in the South. Sometime In the winter of 1931 he came to Pineville and worked energetically and tirelessly among the young people of the NMU. He took an active part in the leadership of the strike. He made powerful speech after powerful speech. "Spell-binder", the miners called him, A good part of the time he stayed with Jim Garland, one of the main spark plugs of the strike and with Tilmon Cadle, another native leader, and with other miners and their families. Not only did he put new heart into these hard-pressed men who had

"No food, no clothes for our children,I'm sure this hain't no lie,If we don't get more for our laborWe'll starve to death and die"

as Aunt Molly Jackson, (Jim Garland's sister) sang in her "Kentucky Miner's Wife's Hungry Ragged Blues", but he was out in front, filling every day with the maximum of perilous activity.

Word, in the course of the strike, came to the miners in Pineville that their friends outside of Kentucky were sending in five truck loads of food and clothing. These people wanted to test the democracy of Kentucky and to show that they could, as friends of the miners, come into this feudal area and distribute relief. They had called for a demonstration of the miners on the day of the arrival of the trucks and Harry Simms had been chosen to lead the miners out of Brush Creek to Pineville to get their share of the relief.

(Ragged and hungry, no slippers on our feet,We're bumming around from place to place,to get a little bite to eat,"

as Aunt Molly's song wailed their wretchedness.)

Jim Garland, who loved Harry Simms as a brother, warned the latter against going up Brush Creek because gun-thugs were always running that road. Simms replied, "It's my job to lead the men to Pineville, and gun-thugs or no gun-thugs, I'll go. If they pop me off, don't waste time grieving after me, but keep right on going. We'll win." In the company of Green Lawson he set out. As they were walking up the road going to Brush Creek, the jitney bus that runs along the railroad came along with two gun-thugs aboard. As soon as they spotted the two miners they jumped off the bus, their six-shooters smoking. Harry Simms fell. He was taken to the hospital at Barbourville. Four days later he died. On the very same day that he lay dead in Barbourville, the two gun-thugs were acquitted under the protection of 900 state troopers and 175 special police.

Despite all their troops and guns and state of martial law, the police at Barbourville were so terrified of a demonntration of the miners at this flagrant murder that they would not turn the body over to a separate person; only to a committee of three. They allowed no funeral to be held. "They was to be no talkin', no walkin', no marchin' behind that corpse there. The Committee was to put him on a train and get him out of there." The Committee-—Tilmon Cadle, Gertrude Hessler, Jeff Franz-—put the body of the radiant youth on the train to New York. He lay in state at a Coliseum in Manhattan. Jim Garland told the great crowds of mourners how Harry Simms had labored so unselfishly and so courageously in the bloody coalfields of Bell County, Kentucky. And then Jim wrote this song to his friend.

Hard Hitting Songs for Hard-Hit People has what appears to be the same song that Susan posted from Sing Out!, but with two extra verses:

The Murder of Harry Simms (words and music by Jim Garland)

Comrades, listen to my story, Comrades, listen to my song. I'll tell you of a hero That now - - is dead and gone. I'll tell you of a young boy, Who's age was just nineteen He was the strongest Union Man That I have ever seen.

Harry Simms was a pal of mine, We labored side by side, Expecting to be shot on sight, Or taken for a ride. By the dirty capitalist gun thugs That roam from town to town, To shoot and kill our Comrades, Wherever they may be found.

Harry Simms and I were parted At five o'clock that day, Be careful, My dear Comrade, To Harry I did say. I must do my duty, Was his reply to me. If I get killed by gun thugs, Don't grieve after me.

Harry Simms was walking up the track This bright sunshiny day, He was a youth of courage, His step was light and gay. We did not know the gun thugs Were hiding on the way, To kill our dear young Comrade This bright sunshiny day.

Harry Simms was killed on Brush Creek In nineteen thirty-two, He organized the Y. C. L., Also the N. M. U. He gave his life in struggle, That was all that he could do. He died to save the Union, Also for me and you.

Comrades we must vow today, This one thing we must do. Must organize all the miners In the dear old N. M. U. And get a million volunteers, Into the Y. C. L. And sink this Rotten System In the deepest pits of Hell.

Aunt Molly Jackson disavowed the last couple of verses, possibly because of the use of "hell" rather than mention of the Young Communist League. I'm curious about the melody. Roscoe Holcomb used the same tune for his song, "Across the Rocky Mountain". Does anyone know its origin?